Tappan Zee Bridge Designs Unveiled

New York state officials on Wednesday unveiled renderings of three proposals for a new Tappan Zee Bridge, less than two weeks before the Thruway Authority is expected to announce a winning bid.

A state selection committee has recommended the authority choose the cheapest option: a $3.1 billion twin-span design that could be built in a little over five years, according to documents released by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s administration. The other designs would cost $3.9 and $4.1 billion, respectively, according to a summary released on Wednesday.

Cuomo said the move toward a final selection was a validation of his administration’s push to jump-start construction of a replacement for the aging span, noting that the state was close to selecting a winning design after roughly one year of work. “It can take a year to buy a new desk in this place,” the governor said.

Administration officials didn’t identify which design team provided each of the proposals, and the selection committee’s recommendation is non-binding.

A winning bidder will be selected by the Thruway Authority’s board of directors at its meeting on Dec. 17, said a spokesman for the bridge project, Brian Coneybeare.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October that the state had focused its negotiations on one group of bidders, a joint venture of Fluor Enterprises Inc., American Bridge Co., Granite Construction Northeast Inc. and Traylor Bros. Inc.

No winner was selected, but people familiar with the state’s communications with the other two bidding groups confirmed that they had been told no further negotiations were necessary at the time.

Questions remain unanswered about the financing of the bridge project.

The Cuomo administration has requested a federal loan for as much as $2.8 billion to pay for much of the project, which would also likely involve raising bridge tolls. The administration has said a formal financing plan is being developed but wouldn’t be finished or made public until after a final price for the contract to design and build the structure is selected.

“We’ve requested a very large loan from the federal government to build the bridge,” Cuomo said. “That is the big question mark right now. We needed to know how much the cost of the bridge was. It depends on which bridge the Thruway Authority ultimately picks.”

The selection committee included artists and design experts, among them sculptor Jeff Koons, architect Richard Meier, and the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Campbell.

“The board now has the option to choose from among those three proposals, but I think it plays a heavy role in the decision-making process,” Thruway Authority Executive Director Thomas Madison said at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.